Decades after he was fired for being gay, teacher Jim Gaylord received an apology Sunday from the Tacoma, Washington, school district that stripped him of his job as a history teacher at Wilson High School in 1972.

The apology sprang from an oral histories project for Oasis, a drop-in, support, and resource center for LGBT youth.

“We honor and respect gay teachers, and they shouldn’t be afraid that anyone would retaliate them,” Miller said, according to ABC News. “Forty-two years later, all we can do is to apologize. We want to give him the dignity back.”

Gaylord, now 76, fought the decision in a long unsuccessful court battle that ended when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear it.

Decades after he was fired for being gay, teacher Jim Gaylord received an apology Sunday from the Tacoma, Washington, school district that stripped him of his job as a history teacher at Wilson High School in 1972.